A coffee and cake-loving community group in Solihull has been named as this week’s charity champion, after members had their cake and ate it to raise £1,250 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity.

The Lyndon’s Community Coffee & Cake Club, which recently celebrated its first birthday, meets every Wednesday at The Lyndon pub for a cuppa, chat and a game of bingo to raise money for their designated charity.

The club was set up to combat loneliness and provide somewhere for isolated and vulnerable people to socialise.  Now it fundraises for a different cause every six months and when the opportunity came to select its next charity, members chose Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity after hearing about one of the group organisers, Laura Wright’s personal experience.

Laura, who runs the club with help from her partner, Scott Drew, said: “Both Katherine – the landlady of The Lyndon – and I have had children cared for by Birmingham Children’s Hospital.  My daughter was treated for Hypermobility - a condition affecting the joints - when she was a baby, so it feels fitting that we’ve done something to say thank you and give back.

“We try to choose a diverse mix of causes to support. Our first charity was focused on care for the elderly and so by choosing the Children’s Hospital, and specifically the Neonatal Surgical Unit, it’s nice to have gone full circle with our fundraising.”

As well as raising money for the charity, The Lyndon’s Community Coffee & Cake Club donated a mountain of nappies, cotton wool, knitted blankets, parent packs and other much-needed baby supplies to the ward.

   

Serena Daw, Public Fundraising Manager at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity said: “The Lyndon’s Community Coffee & Cake Club already does such great work in creating a place for people to come together. But to take that a step further by fundraising for charity is just wonderful. It’s this type of care for the community that spurs people on to support those less fortunate and enables us to do our vital work at our hospital.

“We are so grateful for the Coffee & Cake Club’s gifts. The fantastic amount raised will help to make sure that the 90,000 children we treat at our hospital every year receive the very best care.”

Birmingham Children Hospital Charity is calling on other supporters and groups to use their love of tea and cake to fundraise for the charity. On Friday 5 July people up and down the country will be raising a cuppa to the wonderful health service as part of the NHS Big Tea celebrations, to mark the institution’s anniversary. The charity is asking people to invite their friends, family and colleagues and host their own tea party in support of its sick kids.